Solved Non-recoverable resolver failure

I would say it's a DNS error. Have you access to http://pkg.freebsd.org/ ?
What do you get with host pkg.freebsd.org?
What is the content of /etc/resolv.conf?
Host pkg.freebsd.org not found: 2(SERVFAIL)

resolve.conf:
# Generated by resolvconf
search Home
# nameserver 192.168.0.1
# nameserver 205.171.3.25

nameserver 127.0.0.1
options edns0
 
First, I think that "option edn0" is without effect for FreeBSD or, at least, it's not documented in resolv.conf(). Seems something for some linux distro.
Do you have a name server on your machine or something like "local_unbound=YES" in your /etc/rc.conf?
I suggest to uncomment "# nameserver 192.168.0.1" if your internet box has this ip address.
 
Remove the options edns0 OR configure your local unbound correctly.
 
First, I think that "option edn0" is without effect for FreeBSD or, at least, it's not documented in resolv.conf(). Seems something for some linux distro.
Do you have a name server on your machine or something like "local_unbound=YES" in your /etc/rc.conf?
I suggest to uncomment "# nameserver 192.168.0.1" if your internet box has this ip address.
I removed edns0 and uncommented 192.168.0.1 and put local_unbound_enable="YES" in rc.conf. it is still returning the same error
 
Couldn't this be because I don't have supported hardware and I didn't update through source when they made a change?
 
You have to have the IP address of a functioning DNS server in your resolv.conf. This has very little to do with hardware, source, or downloads. Simple test: Can you do "host www.yahoo.com" from a command line? How about "dig forums.freebsd.org" from the same command line? Both need to work perfectly.

Here is a functioning resolv.conf:
Code:
search mydomain.example.com
nameserver 8.8.8.8
To begin with, you need to set a sensible domain. "Home" will work, but "example.com" will work better (it has the correct format, and is known to the worldwide name service infrastructure, without resolving to a concrete host). Then you need the IP address of a functioning DNS server. Probably the best choices are 8.8.8.8 (available pretty much worldwide, and hardly ever filtered), and usually also 1.1.1.1 and 9.9.9.9. Once you have that, try "ping 8.8.8.8". If that fails, you have a more basic networking problem (lack of connectivity). If it works, you should have a functioning (barebones, ineffecient, but functioning) resolv.conf, and can make forward progress.

Also: You need to understand some networking fundamentals. The fact that you blame the lack of resolver configuration on unsupported hardware, and continue trying to update even when your networking isn't working tells me that you need to learn a few things before attempting to manage a system.
 
You have to have the IP address of a functioning DNS server in your resolv.conf. This has very little to do with hardware, source, or downloads. Simple test: Can you do "host www.yahoo.com" from a command line? How about "dig forums.freebsd.org" from the same command line? Both need to work perfectly.

Here is a functioning resolv.conf:
Code:
search mydomain.example.com
nameserver 8.8.8.8
To begin with, you need to set a sensible domain. "Home" will work, but "example.com" will work better (it has the correct format, and is known to the worldwide name service infrastructure, without resolving to a concrete host). Then you need the IP address of a functioning DNS server. Probably the best choices are 8.8.8.8 (available pretty much worldwide, and hardly ever filtered), and usually also 1.1.1.1 and 9.9.9.9. Once you have that, try "ping 8.8.8.8". If that fails, you have a more basic networking problem (lack of connectivity). If it works, you should have a functioning (barebones, ineffecient, but functioning) resolv.conf, and can make forward progress.

Also: You need to understand some networking fundamentals. The fact that you blame the lack of resolver configuration on unsupported hardware, and continue trying to update even when your networking isn't working tells me that you need to learn a few things before attempting to manage a system.
Okay, I'll go over what you have written for an hour or so and more and think about this. If my host name is machine317.proto does that substitute for "example.com" then nameserver 8.8.8.8. Or the other examples?
 
Please read what the lines in resolv.conf really mean. For example, let's begin with the "search" line. If you have multiple machines on your network (let's call them for fun server, desktop and laptop), and they are all in a common domain (for example mydomain.example.com), then it is convenient to be able to say things like "ssh desktop" or "http://server/status.html". Normally, any name resolution requires a full domain name, so to connect to your desktop you would have to do "ssh desktop.mydomain.example.com", but the search line allows that to be shortened to just "ssh desktop". In a nutshell, the search line means: If you try to find a host and only use a short name, then append this domain name to it and try again.

The nameserver line is pretty self-explanatory: It's just the IP address of a functioning name server.

I worry a little bit about your machine name being "machine317.proto". While in theory any machine name (and domain) is possible if you are not connected to the network, this is not a normally used domain: there is no "proto" top level domain. Similarly, your previous resolv.conf file contained "search Home", which tells me that at some point you configured something to think that your domain is "Home", which is very likely incorrect. Underlying this is that I suspect that you don't understand what a host name, domain name, fully qualified name (FQDN) are, nor how names are translated to addresses. I fear you've been typing somewhat random things into setup tools or configuration files, and now you're asking us to put humpty dumpty back together. And obviously, many people here are willing to help, but I worry that your system has more skeletons in the closet. Learning the basics of networking first might make the setup process easier for you.
 
I kind of understand but the setup is new "out of the box" on virtualization VirtualBox. I haven't made any changes to any configuration files so you could say humpty was already broken. Thanks for taking the time to help me understand though, I love learning how it works and it just doesn't come easily to me, so I'll take what you've said a long way with me.
 
I have the same problem on FreeBSD in VirtualBox. I have GhostBSD working, though. I checked the resolv.conf and both my GhostBSD and FreeBSD are identical. See attached. GhostBSD can use pkg update but FreeBSD cannot. It's weird, because when I installed FreeBSD, I swear I downloaded everything I installed from the FreeBSD repo, so I'm not sure why I cannot connect now.
 

Attachments

  • resolvconf.png
    resolvconf.png
    8.7 KB · Views: 217
I encountered the same problem myself after installing FreeBSD on a VM. As stated above this is a network problem. In my case the network configuration was wiped out from the /etc/rc.conf file. This is how this file is supposed to look like, depending on your configuration of course:
1677783028529.png
 
Back
Top